Let’s face it, all of us make errors at Walt Disney World. Whether or not it’s your first or fifteenth journey, you’re certain to have a couple of massive blunders. We’ve all been there. Such a factor is so frequent that you just shouldn’t flip purple within the face, particularly because the sophisticated and convoluted course of WDW makes use of for actually all the things makes errors and confusion inevitable.
Right here is only a quick listing of embarrassing experiences at Walt Disney World, a few of which can or might not have occurred to us comparatively just lately:
- Misreading Disney’s cutesy signage and going into the improper restroom
- Forgetting which finger you used on the tapstiles and backing up the road behind you at Early Entry
- Carrying Frogg Toggs and a bucket hat round to maintain cool within the Florida warmth
- Awkwardly making (very compelled) small speak with a princess at a personality meal
- Doing that dance the place you and an oncoming stranger each attempt to keep away from each other by transferring in the identical route…repeatedly
- Briefly getting caught on Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare (silly digicam bag), House Mountain, and many others.
- By chance “stealing” somebody’s lounge chair as a consequence of comparable towel and sandals (most likely occurs on a regular basis with ECVs and strollers, too)
- Assorted Genie+ goof ups
- Crying throughout Nation Bear Jamboree
- Crying when assembly well-known movie star (Massive Al)
- Tripping on Principal Avenue trolley tracks or random curbs
- Fistfight with fowl making an attempt to steal Flame Tree BBQ feast
- Pooped on by fowl
These are all fairly frequent experiences to the purpose that they barely bear mentioning. I imply, who amongst us hasn’t shed a single tear on the grace and majesty of Nation Bear Jamboree (there’s a cause they made it a UNESCO World Heritage Website!) or maybe gotten just a little too excited after stumbling upon a uncommon character to the purpose that different visitors gave a little bit of aspect eye. C’mon, we’re all Walt Disney World followers right here, we’re simply constructed in a different way!
That’s not what this listing is about, although. This isn’t a listing of ‘cautionary tales’ that can enable you keep away from making comparable errors and having comparable embarrassing experiences. (Nicely, it sorta is–a few of these bullet factors above actually do occur incessantly.) Quite, that is us pulling again the curtain and sharing a few of the dumb stuff we’ve completed within the 15+ years we’ve been doing Walt Disney World collectively.
I might hazard a guess that the majority of those will likely be distinctive to us, and never a mistake that you may make. So this publish actually serves no sensible goal, save for supplying you with fun at our expense. And isn’t that actually the best reward of all?!
One of many (many) issues we hate about social media is how all the things is picture-perfect, romanticized and completely unrealistic. Influencers current solely what they need you to see–the great of their lives, and infrequently the unhealthy. There are a ton of explanation why that is unhealthy, and creates aspirations for a actuality that doesn’t exist.
You’ll discover none of that right here. Though Sarah’s hair one way or the other and towards all odds can beat the Florida warmth and humidity, we’re actual folks, warts and all. We’ve make errors, have had our share of embarrassing experiences, and–as my grandma places it–don’t all the time suppose with our heads.
(In reality, the “we” on this listing is usually me. I’ve been advised I’ve “center age absent-minded professor vitality,” which I can solely assume is excessive reward because it implies that I’m literate and competent at educating.)
Ghostface Killah – The entire concept for this publish was prompted by my many mishaps this 12 months and, I’m gonna be trustworthy, these are 100% Sarah’s fault. To not feed right into a stereotype of something, however she is mainly the guardrails stopping me from doing or saying dumb issues and making unhealthy decisions.
On this explicit case, Sarah purchased me new industrial energy sunscreen that’s extra like a thick paste or goo than it’s a lotion. This “needed to be completed” as a result of I stored forgetting to reapply common energy sunscreen and was coming house sunburnt.
Anyway, like a complete doofus, I apply this sunscreen like a standard lotion and go on with my enterprise round Magic Kingdom. Quick-forward a number of hours later. I’m popping out of the restrooms close to House Mountain in Tomorrowland and catch a glimpse of myself, wanting like I’ve simply seen a ghost. I had talked to a number of folks throughout the intervening hours and been all around the parks. I used to be mortified, which at the very least gave my face a pleasant purple glow, I suppose.
The worst half? This has occurred greater than as soon as. By no means almost as excessive as that (it was actually unhealthy!), however there are literally a number of images on the weblog the place I look paler than regular. This new sunscreen is the wrongdoer.
Menace Degree Midnight – Lengthy earlier than this weblog was even a mere flicker in my eye, I used to be lively on Flickr (do not forget that?) making an attempt to show myself images and enhance my expertise. We made a number of nice pals then, and ended up taking a number of lengthy weekend photo-centric journeys.
The primary of these was bizarre, however not in a meeting-strangers-from-the-internet approach (on the contrary, just about everybody we’ve met in actual life from the Disney fandom has been superior). Quite, it was as a consequence of two separate encounters with safety.
The primary of those was in Magic Kingdom, when a safety guard questioned what we had been doing with our images, making an attempt to tie tripods to terrorism. (I’m not even kidding.) It made zero sense in any way, as we had been photographing the previous Swan Boat dock and Plaza Rose Backyard. I can’t consider terrorists have a eager curiosity in these issues, though now that I give it some thought, possibly that’s why they had been eliminated.
An evening or two later, we had been all questioned in entrance of Spaceship Earth whereas taking images of the monorails. This one at the very least made extra sense on condition that the monorails are infrastructure, and truthfully spooked us a bit. It nonetheless didn’t utterly take a look at, although. If we needed to ‘doc’ the monorails, why wait till we had been the one visitors left within the park? I’m guessing most unhealthy actors are extra discreet, and never drawing consideration to themselves by taking lengthy publicity images in the very same spot for minutes on finish.
In equity, this was “solely” 7.5 years after 9/11 and tripods had been fairly uncommon within the parks. However I don’t recall having any main points within the years instantly earlier than or after that, so it was embarrassing and unsettling to have two run-ins on the identical journey. (Perhaps safety was heightened and on edge for some cause?)
Room Rave – Talking of safety, earlier this 12 months I used to be returning to my room on the Grand Floridian after a protracted night time of Prolonged Night Hours adopted by the exhilarating exercise of photographing Easter eggs within the foyer. It was someday after 1 am, and I’m simply able to crash–barely in a position to hold my eyes open.
I around the hallway nook to see a half-dozen or extra Forged Members knocking on my door. I used to be immediately awake, my coronary heart racing. I didn’t have time to totally course of the chances or sport out what was happening, however my speedy thought was that somebody planted one thing in my bag. (That makes zero sense in hindsight, however I had simply watched American Made.)
I feebly stated one thing alongside the traces of, “uh…that’s my room.” This one way or the other instantly de-escalated the scenario, with a Forged Member saying one thing like, “oh that is smart.” Apparently they’d acquired a noise grievance, and had simply gotten safety to enter as a result of nobody was responding (since nobody was in there).
The kicker, although, was that I had solely entered my room for about 5 minutes to drop off my baggage and had instantly gone to the parks. The noise was coming from the welcome melody on the tv, which I hadn’t touched as a result of it didn’t happen to me. I used to be extremely apologetic for no matter cause, and based mostly on the response from the Forged Members, this isn’t an unusual prevalence.
Regardless of being totally exhausted 5 minutes earlier, I couldn’t settle down and get to sleep for an additional couple of hours. Nonetheless, I used to be awoken shiny and early the following morning by my neighbors speaking in what gave the impression of regular indoor voices. Maybe it was passive aggressive revenge, however I feel the true villain right here was the paper-thin partitions of the Grand Floridian.
Tequila Sundown – Throughout our Disneymoon nearly 15 years in the past, we put aside in the future to drink round World Showcase at EPCOT, ending with the then-new La Cava Del Tequila. This wasn’t our first rodeo, we had drank across the World a couple of occasions earlier than this, and had a reasonably good concept of how to take action responsibly by pacing ourselves with snacking, points of interest, hydration, and breaks. Or so we thought.
Because it seems, consuming round World Showcase as a school pupil is quite a bit completely different than consuming round World Showcase as sleep-deprived newly-weds who hadn’t had a lot alcohol for months whereas wedding ceremony planning and making an attempt to get into form. Humorous how that works. Fortunately, we knew higher than to get sloppy at Walt Disney World.
What the alcohol did do was diminish our judgment and scale back inhibitions, and we made quick pals with one other couple on the bar. They had been excessive rollers and tequila connoisseurs (at the very least, that was my impression on the time as somebody who nearly solely drank Busch Gentle), and ordered us a couple of pictures and drinks. When it got here time to settle up, they had been pleased to pay for the celebratory drinks.
Nonetheless, I insisted that we pay for our personal drinks. There was a backwards and forwards, however I used to be fairly emphatic that we had been going to pay for ourselves. To today, I couldn’t inform you why. Then I used to be handed the invoice, and my coronary heart sank and my face turned shiny purple. However cussed as I used to be, we paid even over their objections. Once more, zero clue why. We had out after out that we didn’t take. Suffice to say, we’ve by no means drank round World Showcase at EPCOT once more.
Restroom Regrets – Ah, who amongst us hasn’t had a nasty (or good) feast at Chef Mickey’s that, uh, did some injury later. No? Me neither. So it’s an excellent factor that’s not truly what that is about.
My digicam strap is a sling, which implies the lens dangles at my waist (see above). Normally, I’ve one hand on the digicam always as a result of I’ve had the strap fail prior to now and misplaced a lens this manner. That’s not likely doable within the restroom from a logistical perspective, so it bounces round. On one event, my telephoto lens was hooked up and the digicam hit my hip in simply the proper (or relatively, improper) approach, inflicting the digicam to loudly fireplace a sequence of shutter bursts.
This was like a decade in the past, however I nonetheless vividly keep in mind the burden of each eye in that restroom turning in the direction of me, and stuttering to get phrases to return out of my mouth in some silly try to clarify. Like a nasty out of physique expertise. Fortunately, nobody acquired confrontational–I feel it was fairly apparent the lens was photographing the bottom given the orientation of the digicam–however suffice to say, I all the time verify to ensure the digicam is turned off and the lens cap is on earlier than getting into restrooms now.
Solo Roundup – I’ve made a number of solo visits to Walt Disney World this 12 months, as Sarah had been making an attempt to mitigate danger whereas pregnant. I’ve completed some meals with others, however oddly sufficient, none of my thirtysomething pals needed to eat at Toy Story Roundup Rodeo BBQ. So, I opted to eat there alone.
I need to preface this by saying that I truly get pleasure from consuming on my own generally. This was not a kind of occasions. I used to be seated on the very entrance of the restaurant, at a desk each celebration would go on their option to be seated, and proper subsequent to just a little prep station for servers. I used to be already barely uncomfortable to be a solo grownup male in a youngsters restaurant, and being on absolutely show exacerbated it.
What actually put issues excessive was that the kitchen couldn’t put together smaller dimension parts, so I acquired an entire ton of meals introduced out to me. And naturally, I’m photographing all of this meals. (My very own “fault,” so to talk, however did me no favors in making myself much less conspicuous.) Even when Sarah had been with me, this could’ve been approach an excessive amount of meals–I’ll guess we might’ve solely completed half of it.
On my own, I used to be solely in a position to eat rather less than half of it, and that was solely after going approach too onerous to reduce the waste. When my server arrived, I proactively commented on this and apologized for the meals waste. To her credit score, she utterly unfazed and advised me to not fear about it–that she had seen far, far worse and that Walt Disney World recycles all the meals (to not future patrons–this isn’t Chuck E. Cheese), so it didn’t matter.
Though I’m aware of Walt Disney World’s dedication to decreasing and diverting meals waste, I’d nonetheless relatively not be in that place within the first place. I haven’t completed any household fashion meals on my own since Toy Story Roundup Rodeo BBQ.
Masks Off – This one barely registers now, however the world was a unique place in Summer time 2020. Having been largely confined to our house for the prior few months, we did quite a lot of lodge stays as quickly as Walt Disney World started its phased reopening. Charges had been low, and availability was ample by way of DVC.
A kind of mornings, I raced out of the room to {photograph} the dawn on Crescent Lake. As I used to be making my approach by way of the foyer of Seashore Membership, I noticed a Forged Member in a face masks. The subsequent few seconds occurred in gradual movement, as I spotted I wasn’t carrying a masks on the identical time that they stated one thing. I apologized profusely and commenced (over)explaining what occurred, apprehensive that safety was going to get known as or one thing, I suppose?
Even on the time, it was a much bigger deal in my head than something. The Forged Member was understanding, safety was not known as, and I merely ran as much as the room and grabbed my masks. It would look like nothing on reflection, however once more, very completely different circumstances in July 2020. I used to be completely mortified.
Faux Fame – Every so often, readers come as much as us within the parks and say howdy or no matter. We typically like this. It’s good to speak with folks and get suggestions in regards to the highs and lows of their journey, how our itineraries and different planning recommendation labored (or didn’t), and many others.
Typically, individuals are excited to fulfill us and, uh, audibly specific that. I can considerably perceive this; I’d be excited to fulfill Sarah, too! This isn’t awkward in and of itself, however it may be when different visitors within the basic neighborhood then comply with up by asking, “are you well-known?” That’s the type of query that solutions itself. Do I look well-known in my bucket hat, athletic shirt, and Crocs?
Disney running a blog might look like a cool factor to love 3.5% of you, however I can guarantee you that it’s a cool factor to 0.0% of the non-Disney-blog-consuming public. Explaining to a stranger why somebody is happy to fulfill me, a Disney blogger, as they offer me a dead-eyed stare is excruciating for all concerned. Subsequent time I’m simply saying I’m an astronaut.
Whereas we’re on the subject, please say howdy in the event you see us within the park! We actually get pleasure from chatting. But additionally, please don’t get too enthusiastic about it. Belief me, in case you are overly enthusiastic, you is likely to be establishing disappointment for your self…and others round you. I’m in regards to the furthest factor from a celeb as you possibly can conceivably think about. Sarah is cool, although.
Modern Sneakers – I’ve this downside, you may even name it a situation, the place I don’t absolutely suppose by way of selections to their logical endpoint. I take decisive motion. Typically, that’s an excellent factor. On this state of affairs, it very a lot was not.
Sarah and I had simply checked into the Modern, and she or he needed to go decide up a package deal or one thing. It had been raining, and my sneakers had been a bit moist, so I made a decision to quickly speed up the dehumidifying course of: I caught a blow dryer inside one among them. Now, my toes all the time odor one thing terrible once we’re at Walt Disney World. I suppose this alone is low-level embarrassing–however not like a number of DVC members within the Creativeness Lounge, I don’t take my sneakers off within the parks, so it doesn’t matter.
What’s high-level embarrassing is how badly our room…and the hallway…smelled after only some minutes of the quickly accelerated dehumidification course of. It was like a proprietary mix of burnt funguses. Sarah had a couple of alternative phrases for me when she returned (fortunately, we had been married for a number of years at this level), questioning how I managed to stink up the room so effectively within the couple of minutes that she was gone.
I can’t watch the scene in Group the place Troy enters the fire-filled room with out picturing Sarah’s response. Similar goes for the scene in The Workplace the place Kevin will get his sneakers incinerated by the lodge employees as a consequence of them being a security difficulty, which makes me suppose again to discovering an out of the best way trash can on the Modern to ditch my kicks. On the plus aspect, each scenes are particularly humorous as reminders of this ‘enjoyable’ reminiscence.
Fulton’s Feast – There have been most likely quite a lot of occasions I used to be embarrassed throughout my childhood journeys to Walt Disney World, particularly the visits that bled into my teenage years, that awkward time when all the things your mother and father do agitates you. I do know my mother has her personal listing of issues my dad–a navy man with out a filter–stated. However I don’t truly keep in mind any of that; I keep in mind listening to the tales through the years.
What I do vividly keep in mind is consuming at Fulton’s Crab Home aboard the elegant Empress Lilly (now often known as Paddlefish) within the mid to late Nineties. This was fairly a extravagant meal for us nation people, and was simply the nicest meal I had ever eaten in my life up till that time. We had been seated upstairs, in a little bit of a quiet nook, and my mother and father advised me to order no matter I needed. I used to be so excited. I felt like royalty.
I’m unsure I had ever had crab (spelled with a “c” as an alternative of a “okay”) earlier than in my life, so I ordered that. It was scrumptious. It was tender, buttery, succulent, buttery, flavorful, and did I point out buttery? Sadly, the explanation this meal might be so memorable for me is as a result of it’s one of many few meals in my life that prompted me to get…let’s simply say “sick.”
I swore off seafood for a number of years after that (fortunately, it didn’t stick) and on the time, it was not simply embarrassing–however disappointing that this particular expertise turned unfavourable. However there’s a good likelihood I wouldn’t keep in mind it in any respect however for that. Most significantly, I keep in mind my mother and father being gracious and caring once they might’ve been indignant or irritated that their boneheaded son dousing his seafood in like a pound of butter. I suppose that form of speaks to the silver lining in nearly all of this–each indelible expertise shapes us just a little, even the embarrassing and unhealthy ones.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about resorts on our Walt Disney World Resorts Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To economize on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets publish. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys publish takes a singular have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Experience Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the very best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for all the things it’s essential know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Anybody else care to share you or your loved ones’s embarrassing experiences at Walt Disney World? Do your most mortifying moments within the parks beat ours? Have you ever had any comparable experiences to those on this listing? Ideas on our/my dumb errors at Walt Disney World? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions—even whenever you disagree with us—is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
